Housing and Economic Adjustment

Housing is the most important component of wealth for many New Zealanders. Its location is fixed and its value is influenced by economic and other factors specific to that location. Hence when people live in owner-occupied homes their wealth is strongly associated with their local economic conditions. Housing is also a major factor in influencing migration decisions and, hence, regional mobility. To shed light on the behaviour of the New Zealand housing market, we examine the dynamic and long run responses of house values across spatial communities and across time to economic variables that impact on the local economy. We use a specially constructed QVNZ-sourced database for house prices and house sales, and a range of explanatory variables constructed consistently across TLA and Regional Council levels.